7 Persuasion at work III

Question 1

Micro level analysis: 4-step identification process

Answer 1

1) Metaphor identification

– a) focus identification (and metaphorical expression, or ‘linguistic metaphor’ identification)

– b) from focus identification I can shift to the conceptual metaphor and identify source and target domains

2) Conceptual implications
3) Appeals to Emotions (metaphor is not just ‘conceptual’)
4) Considerations with respect to the macro discourse (argumentative flow of the discourse, ideological basis, strategy of persuasion) from micro-text back to macro-text

Question 2

The focus of metaphor identification

Answer 2

• The focus is on the non-literal part of the metaphorical expression: the words that signal the presence of the shifting/metaphorical clash and allow us to extrapolate the metaphor
• The focus isn’t always related to the source domain, it could even be a preposition
• The focus of the metaphor is not the theme, nor the main thematic subject of the expression

Question 3

Genres of speeches studied during the course

Answer 3

Inaugural Address and States of the Union (SU)
Addresses to the Nation (AN)
Radio Addresses (RA)

Question 4

The ideological roots of the fear strategy

Answer 4

The constitutive terms of the fear strategy is a bipolar structure made of two antithetical spaces associated to two opposing emotions:
- an outside, locus of fear: represented as peril and threat, an enemy approaching
- an inside, locus of confidence: represented as a space of tranquility and an ideal of perfection.
The maximal emotive reaction is obtained with the potential break of this balance, usually offered by the sudden incursion of the monster in the space of tranquility

Question 5

G.W. Bush Persuasion strategy from 9/11 to the Iraq war

Answer 5

• working through the conflict frame
• radicalisation of the conflict (manichean conflict)
• constructing a strategy of fear